Who is Souza? Get to know our new left-back

Souza is a Spur! The young Brazilian becomes our second addition of this transfer window following his move from boyhood club Santos on Thursday afternoon.

The 19-year-old left-back started 19 of his 24 appearances in a breakthrough campaign in Brazil's top tier last term and contributed one goal and two assists amidst some impressive displays for Peixe (Fish) in the second half of the season to help them stave off relegation.

Fast, agile, technical and with the ability to dribble at speed, the teenager has good attributes for a full-back but, with only 38 senior appearances, is lesser known outside of his homeland as he now looks to make his mark in England.

So, here's everything you need to know about our new recruit.

Futsal foundations

Born in Maua, a municipality of Sao Paolo, João Victor de Souza Menezes - or Souza for short - started playing football at a very young age due to his father being a football coach and running a local football school.

How to pronounce Souza's name

Souza's football foundations started in futsal, a bedrock of Brazilian football culture, at the age of eight and a year later was playing in Sao Paolo's state futsal league with Clube Atletico Juventus (Juventus S-P).

Scouted by Santos at nine years old, the young Brazilian continued to play futsal alongside his time in their youth setup before choosing to solely focus on football at 14.

Young strides at Santos

By 16, Souza stepped up to Santos Under-20s for the first time off the bench in a 3-0 league win over Fluminense in July, 2022 and went on to feature five times in the Copinha youth cup as his side progressed to the semi-final stage in January, 2023.

At the end of March, he was called up to the Brazil youth squad for the Under-17 South American Championship in Ecuador and started six of his eight appearances to help his nation win the tournament.

The defender then earned a place in Brazil's Under-17 World Cup team in the November and featured four times, including as a late substitute in a 2-1 success over England, until they were knocked out in the quarter-finals in Indonesia.

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